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Typical OEM decision at least in the most expensive model having a cpu that is far to powerful compared to the gpu, the i7 is not a good match with a gtx660, if they where to include a 680 it would be a better match or in general if they went with a 3570 (k is not something oem's generally do) and a 670 they would create a generally better rig at a similar price.

Typical OEM decision at least in the most expensive model having a cpu that is far to powerful compared to the gpu, the i7 is not a good match with a gtx660, if they where to include a 680 it would be a better match or in general if they went with a 3570 (k is not something oem's generally do) and a 670 they would create a generally better rig at a similar price.

Yup. They could have used an i3-3240 or something with the gtx660. It's a gaming machine, not a render farm... An i5 would have been more than sufficient...

I already have an Alienware X51

I have the i7 with the 660 GTX. I opted for the 660 instead of the 680 for price. I also use this computer for a variety of other things. When I bought it, I didn't have the option of Linux though hehe. It is a shame, that I bought this computer with Windows 7 when there is a Linux option. However I run Arch instead of Ubuntu. Luckily I bought it before they included Windows 8 as the default OS.

Typical OEM decision at least in the most expensive model having a cpu that is far to powerful compared to the gpu, the i7 is not a good match with a gtx660, if they where to include a 680 it would be a better match or in general if they went with a 3570 (k is not something oem's generally do) and a 670 they would create a generally better rig at a similar price.

At least it show that Valve influence seem to be working, for if you told me there would be a Linux based Alienware gaming system available barely a year ago, I wouldn't have believe it.

Now let just hope that Valve make better hardware combination choice when it come to the box.

Hmm pretty high priced for what they offer... also yes, one doesn't understand why they go full high-end on the CPU but not the GPU, on a gaming rig one would expect the opposite..

I just finished building my gaming rig (it runs Fedora 18 btw) and with 850€ I got an i5-3450, AMD HD7850 2Gb, 8Gb DDR3-1600 of ram, and a 23" IPS FullHD monitor.

Actually the reason they cannot go for high end GPU is that the computer is a small form factor, so they big number wouldn't just fit in the case, highest end video card for small form factor you can get is an ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini, which was release this week.

And now that I know it also a small form, it doesn't seem so bad, still higher then building your (but margin much less then regular desktop vs OEM), but at least not excessive.

A minimum $600 price point for a linux gaming machine doesn't look all that appealing to me atm. I think, and hope, the Valve Steambox could deliver good performance at a more attractive price point.

Valve has said the box they want to manufacture themselves is their $300 model right? With our current pricing of parts I think we're already really close to that being an affordable and viable build for most linux gamers now. Wouldn't something like that look somewhat like this?

processor: $50, pentium

motherboard: $50, mini-itx

Blu-ray: $40, reader

Case + PSU: $40, m-atx slim or m-itx

RAM: $25, ~4 GB+

Wifi: $15, 150 mbps N

HDD: $45, 500 GB

Controller: $35, Bio-feedback controller (I have no idea what this would actually cost and this is a very wishful estimate.)

GPU: $70, Nvidia GFX ~GT 640 or better, Small Form Factor

Linux OS: $0, =P

Total: $370

This kind of build is already possible at a price point of ~$370 so either Valve would sell it at a loss, prices could drop $70 by Q4, or just buying and manufacturing in bulk would shave it off.

Anyway, it is really awesome to see an OEM offering linux on a higher end rig, even if I find the attractiveness of such a machine with the current selection of linux games questionable.